


Art & Science

by lurKINGaroundd



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: College AU, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Peter is Spider-Man, Romance, and they are competing for money, mj has a pet bird because i like birds, mj is an artist and peter is a scientist so they don't believe they can get along, they are both little shits, they work together but they can't stand each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-07-25 22:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16206623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lurKINGaroundd/pseuds/lurKINGaroundd
Summary: Peter Parker.Her enemy, her rival.Okay, maybe Michelle Jones was being a bit dramatic. But right now they were in fact enemies, competing."Hey, Parker." She greeted. "Late, again. Guess I won't have to work that hard for the bonus after all."Right. THE bonus."Leave me alone, Jones." He simply answered as he went to behind the counter.They were in a very serious competition for this month's bonus. The boss said that the best worker of the month would get it.And MJ wanted to defeat Peter. (because extra money is always good, not because she's obsessed with him or something).





	1. Rivals

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys like my new story. Please, leave a comment, it's really important to me.

Michelle Jones was at the coffee shop, in the morning, Monday, working. In the background, a Gwen Stefani song softly played.

'If I was a rich girl, na na na na'

'See, I'd have all the money in the world, if I was a wealthy girl'

She liked the song, but now it felt like it was mocking her. MJ was tired, and she wanted to be a rich girl. Instead she was an art student. 

Michelle tried to cheer herself up by thinking that it wasn't all that bad. Her parents were supporting her emotionally and financially, so that was a good thing, most parents would be against their child getting an art major. She just needed a little extra money for art supplies, and that's why she's working at a coffee shop during the mornings. 

Her workplace wasn't all that bad either, Michelle didn't have to deal with pretentious costumers like she would have to if she was working at a more fancy shop. Most of her costumers were half dead college students looking for some caffeine to get them through the morning, so that's good too, also, free coffee.

Yeah, her situation wasn't bad after all. Michelle was beginning to cheer up as she served coffee to a couple of nice costumers, they even smiled and thanked her. But then he showed up. 

Peter Parker.

Her enemy, her rival.

Okay, maybe she was being a bit dramatic. But right now they were in fact enemies, competing.

"Hey, Parker." She greeted. "Late, again. Guess I won't have to work that hard for the bonus after all."

Right. THE bonus.

"Leave me alone, Jones." He simply answered as he went to behind the counter.

They were in a very serious competition for this month's bonus. The boss said that the best worker of the month would get it.

Michelle believed capitalism was fucked up, and that this situation was only another way to put the working class against each other. Well, she believed in all that, but she still wanted to win that bonus, dammit. And MJ wanted to defeat Peter, especially because he won last month's competition. She was seeking revenge.

"I know you're mad because you lost last time, but don't use your energy on me. Work harder, instead." Peter grinned at her.

"Shut up, nerd."

Peter Parker was the most calm person she knew, but Michelle still managed to drive him mad. Now, he reached a point where he would talk trash back to her. It still looked like Peter didn't have in his blood to be bad, but he tried. Sometimes, in the end, because of his niceness, she would end up looking like the bad guy, and that was even more annoying.

So, they hated each other. It was their destiny, really. MJ was an artist and Peter a scientist. They were bound to hate each other, it was written in the stars.

And since she lost last month's bonus because of stupid Peter Parker, Michelle had decided to sell some of her art. Going against the sense of attachment she had with her favorite pieces, she was in the process of selling her Spider-Man collection.

Oh yeah, she was a Spider-Man fan. It was unexpected for her too, but the hero saved something really precious for her.

It happened last year (her first year in college), she was taking a walk with her cockatiel. Yes, the love of her life, Frida The Cockatiel. The little bird was on her shoulder as she calmly walked in her block. It was a planned path, but what she didn't plan was the owners of one of the houses getting a dog, a loud and angry dog. Frida was so scared that she flew to a tree nearby and kept screaming at the dog from there. MJ eventually managed to get the dog away from them, but Frida still refused to come back to her. And MJ was tall but not as tall as the gigantic tree the bird decided to fly to.

"Come on, Frida! Come back here." She called many times.

No response. 

"Hey ma'am, need some help?" A voice close to her said.

She looked at her side, and that's when she personally met Spider-Man. Michelle was surprised. She knew that he was supposed to be the superhero for the little people, but he was also saving the world on a daily with the Avengers. 

After a few seconds, MJ regained her senses. "Uh... Yeah. My bird is on that tree, she's scared because of some dog and won't come back."

"Oh. I can get her back for you." He said, but she stopped him before he could move.

"No, wait. If you go, she'll just fly away." Michelle knew her little bird was only going to get scared at the sight of a stranger in a red and blue suit.

"Okay... Then what do we do? Oh, I know!" Spider-Man seemed to have an idea. She came to the conclusion that he was really friendly as the rumors said. "How about I take you up there? She won't be scared of you and fly away, right?"

"Yeah, right. Uh, are sure that's okay?"

"It's okay, don't worry. I won't let you fall." He said in confident tone of voice. He gestured for her to get closer.

She got closer to him, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Going up!" He said and she immediately closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes she was up and facing Frida. Spider-Man was holding her by the waist, and she had only one arm holding on him, so she used her free hand to reach the pet bird.

"Come here, girl. It's me, don't be scared. No bad dog, just me." Michelle softly said. 

The cockatiel hopped on her finger. They went down. In the ground she caressed the little bird's head. "Don't you ever scare me like that again, okay? How am I going to wake up in the morning without you yelling at me, huh?" She turned to thank Spider-Man but that's when she noticed he was already gone, and she lost the chance to say thank you.

MJ was aware of Spider-Man existence before, she used to think he was okay. But after her encounter with him, she ended up becoming a fan. Michelle would follow him on the news, and hope that he wasn't going to be found dead in a ditch somewhere. The super hero invaded her art at every opportunity. Michelle guessed she could say he was being his muse at the moment.

And now she was letting go of her Spider-Man art for some money. 

Being the end of their shifts, Michelle and Peter were both getting ready to go home, when she popped the question.

"Hey, loser."

"I literally won-" He began to whine but gave up with a sigh. "Forget it. What?"

"Are you Spider-Man's fan?"

"Wh- why?" Peter asked back.

"Are you or not?" 

"Uh, I guess, he's cool, maybe."

"Okay, great, you look like a nerd who would fanboy over stupid superheroes."

"Hey-"

"Anyway." She got her phone out of her back pocket, and showed the screen to him. "Here. I do some Spider-Man art. If you or one of your nerd friends are willing to buy, tell me. You owe me since you stole my money from the bonus."

"Wow, that's beautiful." He said as he looked at the pictures she showed him. He was so mesmerized by her work that he ignored her bitter comments in the middle of her request. Peter had seen fan-arts of his alter ego before, but it usually were simple sketches, cartoon-like drawings, and he very much appreciated everything. But this... They were literally stunning paintings, oil on canvas and everything.

"Eh, thank you, I think." Michelle wasn't expecting him to compliment her.

Peter got out of his trance, and tried to get his act together. "So, you're a Spider-Man fan... I thought superheroes were just a nerd thing." He said with a teasing smile.

"Well, he's my muse, so." She answered, matter-of-factly.

Peter's eyes widened at the word 'muse'. He almost blushed, almost. He was expecting her to deny it somehow, and not to confirm it without a hint of shame.

Was it because he saved her pet bird? 

When he got the job at the coffee shop, Peter was surprised that one of his co-workers was the cute bird girl. He was hoping to see her again, but he didn't expect that when he met her they would be such a disaster.

Peter doesn't even know anymore how they got there, but their souls simply didn't match. He was annoyed at every comment of hers, she was annoyed at his habit of nervously tapping his feet on the floor.

Michelle guessed it all started when Peter arrived on his very first day at the shop. She was on a bad mood, and he was all cute smiles and sunshine. There was something about him, as if she knew him from somewhere before, but she couldn’t place it. It drove her a bit mad. As a defense mechanism, without even noticing at first, she was being cold towards him, shutting down his attempts at befriending her.

So she was being kind of a jerk, yeah, but she was going to work on it, someday, hopefully. Who knows.

MJ ignored his sad puppy eyes of when she ignored him. But apparently not even Parker was the type to just accept her rudeness. One day, he snapped.

Peter was trying to get a bowl of coffee, but the object was up on a shelf that he couldn’t reach, only his fingertips being able to touch the bowl. He was about to give a little jump to reach the coffee, when Michelle approached him, and got the bowl for him, without an effort. She was wearing her cool black boots that day, and they made her even more taller. 

She handed the bowl to him. “Here.”

He roughly got the object out of her hands, and looked into her eyes, obviously not in a good mood. “Are you mocking me?” He asked.

‘Finally.’ Michelle thought. He finally retaliated. She wasn’t even trying to make fun of him with this, but if this is what made him tick, then so be it. “Yes, I am.” She smirkerd as she replied. 

Peter knew he wasn’t exactly tall. He always knew how to take jokes about his height as well. Hanging out with Tony Stark who also wasn’t a tall fella, was good for his confidence too. Over all, he wasn’t sensitive about his height at all. But the way this girl has been treating him the last few days for no apparent reason, and just the way that she coolly decided to show off her height in front of him, acting as if he was helpless toddler, made him lose it. ‘I’m Spider-Man, for God’s sake.’ He thought. He could’ve reached that coffee bowl. 

Peter mourned for a second that the cute bird girl hated him, and he started to hate her back.

Since that incident, they accepted that they didn’t really like each other, and they fell into the role of tall versus short, artist versus scientist banter.

So, when their boss, the owner of the coffee shop, Mr. Harrington, announced a competition for a bonus by the end of the month, MJ and Peter just looked at each other for a second, and they knew it was on. They were fighting for the bonus while attempting to insult each other. 

Like that time when Michelle ran into Peter, and said “Sorry. Didn’t see you there. You’re so tiny I could step on you.” She almost made him drop the tray with three cups of coffee that he was holding, but the boy had unexpectedly good reflexes, and avoided the disaster she tried provoke. Mr. Harrington still gave him a look, and wrote something on his notepad in disapproval, and she grinned at Peter.

“Well, then maybe you should pay more attention to the ground, you giraffe.”

MJ felt better about herself with the hate thing being mutual. Sometimes Peter wouldn’t know what to say back, or he would just be tired of bickering with her, and he would just storm out, looking angry. It was cute. Wait, no. Funny. It was funny.

But back to the present.

“So, are you interested or not?” Michelle asked regarding the paintings. 

“Oh, uh. Yeah, sure. I’ll tell Ned about them, I think he’ll like it.” Peter answered, still feeling a bit shy about how MJ had described Spider-Man.

She knew Ned. He had passed by a few times to get coffee, he was Peter’s roommate. “Right. Ned is a cool nerd, I don’t know how he puts up with you.”

“You know what? Forget it. I bet Ned doesn't even have the money, anyway.” He said, annoyed at her remarks.

“No, wait.” She grabbed his wrist as he was about to go away. “Sorry, I guess.” She really wasn’t good at it.

Michelle wasn’t that desperate for money, it would just be a good financial move for the moment. She didn’t have a big audience on social media to promote her work, and most people of her major weren’t really interested in the Avengers, they were more into abstract and political art, which she completely understood. That’s why she was after nerds who would be more into that stuff. MJ thought that maybe getting rid of her pieces about Spider-Man would help her get over the superhero who saved her pet bird, and give space to different themes in her head. A new muse would be good. 

“You would be doing me a favor by telling people about my art so… thanks, I think.” She finally said.

“No problem. Your art is cool, I guess.” He said.

They were having a serious problem at being civilized with each other.

‘I think’ ‘I guess’, they were really trying hard to seem indifferent.

“Uh… Bye, then?” Peter said as he softly shook the arm she was still holding, as if he was telling her ‘hey, you forgot to release my arm’.

And when Michelle realized it, she dropped his wrist as if it was burning her hand. “Bye.” She said quickly, and grabbed her bag, it was the end of the shift, remember? Time to go home, MJ told herself. 

They both went away, feeling a bit weird, but knowing it was definitely not their worst shifts spent together. 

Like that time Peter spilled coffee on Michelle on purpose, and pretended to be an accident.

See? They had worse days.

For a moment, MJ left work thinking that the scientist boy wasn’t all that bad.

And Peter left work thinking that maybe the artsy girl could be kinda cool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, I don't really know how colleges in the USA works, and maybe I could do some research, but I felt like just going with my imagination. The story is not that deep, so. English is not my native language, so I apologize for any mistakes.
> 
> Thank you so so much for reading!
> 
> Comments means a lot to me, and they motivate me to keep writing!


	2. Squid-ward and Sponge-bob

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate comments!!!!

“You can be really annoying sometimes, Peter.” Ned said, still keeping his eyes glued to the TV’s screen. It was playing an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine he had already seen.

“C’mon, man. You just go there and buy one of her works. I sent you the pictures, her paintings are amazing.” Michelle had sent photos of her art to Peter, they had each other’s numbers because of work, but that was actually the first time they used it. At least they weren’t insulting each other through texting, Peter thought.

“Look, you know I love to gather Spidey merchandise, but I don’t have money right now.” Ned explained.

“I’ll… I’ll just give you the money, and you buy it, how about that?” Peter suggested.

This time, Ned finally took his eyes off the TV. “That doesn’t make any sense. You already see her everyday, if you have money just go and buy it.”

Peter grimaced. “Ugh, I don’t want to gush over her work and buy it, I hate her!”

Ned scoffed. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, man.” Ned insisted. “You’re like, incapable of hating. Or do I need to remind you of the million times you saved super villains and other criminals who literally tried to kill you?” 

“That’s not entirely true. I hated Flash!” 

“You also saved his ass one time.”

Peter grunted. “What’s your point?” 

“My point is, like I said a second ago, you don’t hate Michelle. Maybe you don’t like her, but that’s it. And you’re just being childish about not wanting to tell her you actually appreciate her work, besides saying ‘that’s cool’ like a moron and running away.”

“So what? It felt like she didn’t want me to buy her stuff anyway. She just wanted a “nerd audience”, as she said herself.” Peter also liked to gather Spidey merchandise, so of course he wanted at least one of her paintings. But he didn’t want to step on his pride, and buy something from the girl who is actually his enemy at work. Even though, he kind of already admitted to her that her work was indeed amazing. Also… A part of him wanted to help her with whatever she was doing. A small part.

Ned sighed. “I don’t know what’s your problem with Michelle, really. She’s pretty cool and she likes Spider-Man.”

“What? My problem with her?” He sounded offended, and that was kinda funny to Ned. “I don’t have a problem with her. She’s the one who got a problem with me! It’s like I’m working with Satan.”

Ned wheezed. “Are you quoting Mariah Carey now? I swear she said the exact same thing about a beef she had with some other artist.”

“What? Am I?” Peter didn’t know what Ned was talking about, he didn’t know a lot about celebrities. “Well, anyway. I’ll give you money, just go there and buy it for me, please?” 

“Fine, fine, you weirdo.” Ned thought Peter always acted extra weird when it came to his co-worker. Everyday he had a new story about what obnoxious thing Michelle did or said to him. And that was strange for Ned, since Peter was never the resentful type.

The other day, he went to the coffee shop with Peter, to grab a coffee, and to buy one of Michelle’s painting. He noticed that Peter and Michelle acted a little awkward around each other, but soon their dynamic was changed, and they were throwing passive-aggressive insults. 

At first, Ned thought that Peter was “pulling the hair of the girl he likes”, but Peter wasn’t this kind of guy (he was the annoyingly sweet to his crush kind of guy). And now, he had another theory, that maybe, Michelle was the one that pulled the boy’s hair first.

But well, they would figure it out for themselves. Hopefully. 

The morning of another day started, and Peter was running late, because of Spider-Man duty he had to deal with until late last night, not that it was something new. Some lunatic threw him off a building (not something new too), he was still a bit sore, but everything was already taken care off. 

And when he arrived at the shop, he saw Michelle sitting on the floor by the place’s door, sketchbook in hands. 

“Good morning, dweeb. You’re late, I’m so shocked.” Jones said sarcastically, of course. 

Peter just sighed. He heard her voice and immediately asked himself, ‘why do I work here again?’ But then he remembered the good work hours, the money, Mr. Harrington being understanding of the struggle students face at end of a semester. Also, the fact that Peter and May didn’t want to live on Tony Stark’s money, and that May wanted him to get a regular college life experience. 

May had said. “Get a part time job, go to parties, study and have fun! Stark is helping with your super heroing stuff, but I’m the one responsible for your regular life stuff, right? I’m raising you, and he already gave you and Ned a nice apartment to live, we can’t accept more. If it gets too hard, if it’s too much… You call me, you talk to me, and we’ll sort things out. I know how much being Spider-Man means to you, but I think you should have other kind of life experiences too.” 

In the beginning Peter thought that it would be too much, but in the end, May was right. He was appreciating the little things in life that didn’t involve fighting crime and crazy aliens. It reminded him of the reason that made him fight everyday, he was fighting for this world and its people. And he needed to be Peter Parker as much as he needed to be Spider-Man. 

So that’s why he was here, hearing Michelle’s insults. “Why aren’t we open?” Peter asked pointing at the shop's closed door.

“Well, it seems that the boss is even more late than you today.” Michele replied. “If Mr. Harrington wasn’t so cool, I’d complain about him not warning us he was going to open up late.”

“Uh, I see. You could’ve warned me though, since you got here earlier.” Peter said.

Michelle scoffed at him. “And why would I do that?”

Peter sat on the floor, by her side, but with a safe distance between them. “Oh yeah, I forgot. Why would you do something nice to anyone, ever, right?”

“Right.” Michelle simply answered.

He thought she was going to ignore his existence next to her, but she actually started talking. “Hey, do you think Spidey is okay?”

If Peter had a drink in hands that would be moment he would spill it. “What? Why?”

“Didn’t you see the news? This crazy guy threw him off a fucking building.” She answered, sounding worried.

“Oh, that.” Peter was a bit touched at her worry, not that he would admit it. “I think he’s okay. I mean… He defeated the bad guy in the end.”

“Yeah.” She said, as if she was trying to convince herself of something. “He always comes back.” Michelle had a really soft and discreet smile on her face, really easy to miss, but Peter actually saw it. 

‘So she really likes Spider-Man.’ He thought. And then he peeked at her sketchbook. She was drawing his alter ego once again, this time he was on the floor, looking beaten and hurt, but getting up. 

It reminded Peter of that time he was under the wreckage that The Vulture managed to drop on him. The sketch was making it feel like she was there, watching him struggle to get up. Michelle was beyond amazing at this art thing, he concluded.

After the brief Spider-Man talk, they fell into an uncomfortable silence, and Peter, always so agitated, couldn’t take it, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

“Were you, like, a bully during high school?” Peter wanted to kick himself after the words spilled out of his mouth.

This time, she laughed, and that was a relief to him. “What? Afraid I’m going to give you a wedgie or something?”

“Actually, yes.” He answered, a silly smile threatening to appear on his face.

“You can chill. I wasn’t a bully, going out of my way to harass people, but I used to get into fights during school, so if you’re going to be afraid of something, be afraid that I might punch you in the face.” She said with a grin on her face that was telling him she was just kidding, but sometimes he wasn’t sure.

“Why did you get into fights?” Peter asked, genuinely interested.

“I… I just fought back, you know? When people bothered me. Then, next thing I knew the kids were putting up challenges of ‘who can beat Michelle Jones?’ It was a stupid phase, really.”

“Oh, that’s harsh.” Peter was surprised that she answered sincerely, and not with a joke.

“Eh. Then I got really into art to distract myself, I started to fight back with words, give less of a shit to other people. With time, art wasn’t just my distraction, it was my thing. So.”

“That’s cool.” Peter said, and then he remembered how Ned called him a moron for saying things like that because he was too childish to show actual admiration for anything coming from Michelle. Why would he even ask those things if he hadn't something good enough to say? He wondered.

The silence after that was even more uncomfortable now that Jones had unexpectedly opened up a little, even though she told him things in such a nonchalantly way.

Peter started talking again. “I… I never fought back. At school, I mean. The people who bothered me.”

Good thing for both of them, in college people seemed more chill, taking care of their own life. A little bit less childish.

“Huh I can see that.” She answered, and then looked into his eyes for the first time this morning. “You’re too nice. That’s why you put up with me, right? Even though I’m a jerk to you.” Her question sounded a bit self-deprecating.

Peter looked into her eyes, and he didn’t really know what to answer. “Wh-Why would you want to punch me in the face, anyway?” He changed the subject.

She sighed. “I don’t know, man. You just have that effect on people.”

He rolled his eyes, and they were back into arguing. 

“Hey, Squid-ward and Sponge-bob. Excuse me, I need to unlock the door.” Mr. Harrington arrived and said, interrupting their feud, since both of them were blocking the way to the door.

Michelle laughed and pointed a finger at Peter like a little kid. “Ha, you’re Sponge-bob.”

Peter scoffed. “Oh right, I forgot your long limbs were actually tentacles, Squid-ward.”

Harrington maintained the indifferent expression on his face. “I’m glad you guys liked the new nickname. Let’s get to work.” He said. “And sorry for being late, by the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you soooo much for reading my imagination's poop. Leave a comment!! It means a lot.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning, I don't really know how colleges in the USA works, and maybe I could do some research, but I felt like just going with my imagination. The story is not that deep, so. English is not my native language, so I apologize for any mistakes.
> 
> Thank you so so much for reading! 
> 
> Comments means a lot to me, and they motivate me to keep writing!


End file.
